The authors point is that what we all do is illegal and perhaps we should attempt to do something so that we are not breaking the law. Some people are like that. :-)
I've got GIMP and Irfan view on my PC. By the time GIMP has started up, I can do a quick crop and lossless rotation in Irfan view! So for your ebay changes you might want to try it. Obviously very basic compared to GIMP which I only roll out for the big jobs!
Actually, I recently (1 year ago) started using Picasa - That's great for organising your photos and I like the straightening tool (I must be holding my camera wonky!) and the "I'm feeling lucky" adjuster that just sorts out the colour balance etc. nicely.
Re: These are just for the lazy and technical illiterates.
for "the lazy and technical illiterates" - not exactly a niche market then! What percentage of the population can make their own NAS?
I was lucky - I got a 1TB Buffalo LinkStation Duo 1TB (refurbished) for £73 delivered almost a year ago - pretty close the the cost of 1TB of USB external drive. Fine for storing my videos on (no need for RAID for my usage). They're £90 from ebuyer now.
I think they have their place but I agree that at these prices - not so sure.
True - it's like the author thinks he's being picked on because he has a mac. Maybe someone who's a member of a racial minority who can't access the drive will say Google are racist! :-)
I've been waiting for my e-mail to let me know it's available. I tried using it on my Android phone first and (as if it matters) am now using a PC.
I've got a feeling that if we could resist fiddling with our phones, they would last a long time! My wife isn't using her ZTE Blade at the moment. It's on 3g and syncing mail reading the odd text message. It was down to about 10% after 6.5 days!
I can just about cope with the idea of no SD card - I never fill up my 8GB one and USB on the go would provide extra storage if I was on a long trip but I like having a spare battery that I can swap in. I keep a spare in my motorbike jacket so if I get stuck somewhere I know I have a good battery. I don't think the reviewer mentioned this downside.
I read the comments about why aren't manufacturers making the battery last longer or not providing SD card slots. I guess we have to vote with our feet. Quite tempted by the Motorola Razr with its amazing battery life and I think that has an SD card slot - but you can't replace the battery! (something that killed off my Archos 5). I chose a Motorola Defy because it has better than average battery life (still only about 2 days though) and was fairly cheap. The Motorola's seem good on battery life generally.
It will be interesting to see what the Galaxy SIII is like.
How do they work at night? Shouldn't my phone be hiding the phone dialler straight away as there's no light? Not that I've experimented - maybe it does!
True - everyone to their own but I wonder how many people are kidding themselves? When I first started ripping I wondered what quality to use. So I ripped a song at 3 different kbps (all at 128 or above using LAME) then burnt each one twice in a random order back to audio CD. I also did that with the original wav file so I had 8 songs on there, 2 original quality and 6 at varying qualities. I could not tell the difference on my Hi-Fi and neither could my younger friend (about 30 at the time I think).
A guy at work had much better hearing than us - or was better at spotting common mp3 artifacts and almost picked out each one correctly but still rated one of the originals as being from mp3.
So yes - everyone to their own and some people certainly have better ears but I think its worth doing a blind test on yourself with the best equipment available and then picking a quality maybe one higher than you think you can hear. It's easy to kid yourself that you can hear a difference when you know one should be better - just human nature.
I can't install Sprinkler as the market says it's not compatible with my phone. The text says it works on 2.3 or later. I have CM 7.1 which is based on Android 2.3.something so I should be OK. Am I wrong?
Well that's how they told the story. They're not exactly known for embracing electric cars so it's a bit odd that they started out so positive - unless they were trying to make a good story? And that's what Top Gear's about - a good story and people should be happy with that. Blame the stupid investors for taking Top Gear's information as factual! :-)
"...this[PO] is premature." .... "...Peak Oil is dead:"
Which is it? Through the rest of the article it's dead but near the start it's just "premature". Of course, it will happen one day. The fact that we might replace it with something that isn't too disruptive to our society a bit later than anticipated is neither her nor there.
Still - interesting information but a bit hyped up.
I got a cheapo Smasung laser printer about 7 years ago to get the wife through university. It cost £59 including VAT and delivery. Handy with only one wage coming in. I saved money by refilling the cartridge and it saw a *lot* of work - she likes printing! It's still in use though it has an easier life now.
So not useless at all. Duplex would have been nice but you can get that under £100 now.
They'll be suing them for their innovative - "Taking the mick out of the competitors in an advert." concept. We call it an iAdvert and we invited it. Thanks.
You could even pop along and visit - that'll help their fund raising a little and could be fun. I've been once and enjoyed seeing the old 80's home computers (sorry - a bit low brow!).
Similar to the posting about the complaint of requiring software for the Nokia but no mention of that lack on the iPhone. The iPhone has no replaceable sd card (OK - you can get bigger internal memory but then increase the price) and neither does the Nokia but it's only mentioned on the Nokia page.
Maybe you should have complained at the lack of an easily replaceable battery for those festival weekends to complete the set! :-)
Is it just because we can assume that everyone knows about the iPhones shortcomings? (i.e. iTunes software, fixed battery and no SD card)
Poor old Nokia. They can't compete with imaginative innovations from Apple such as welding the battery, memory and SIM into the phone so you can't take them out.
Some of the comments say it doesn't work - some say it does I'll have to dig out my MAC address when I get home and give it a try.
So I'll have to concede the situation with a mad, but knowledgeable, ex partner figuring out how to track you could be in issue (still very rare I would have thought) but still can't see the concern over a dodgy government suddenly managing to locate someone for reasons mentioned earlier.
Really - I'm off the grid but now Google put me back on?
"If you happened to be a dissident in a country with no democracy and a poor record on human rights and justice, you might be quite disconcerted that databases of Google, Skyhook, etc. could be used to determine your location"
So I've got a house, broadband connection, bank, phone, pay bills, have a car etc. etc. but the only way the government can find me is because I foolishly wrote to them to let them know my MAC address and they asked Google where it was?
If I was in that situation I certainly wouldn't have a WiFi router broadcasting my location (assuming someone has my MAC address).
Someone said that there was/might have been a website that might have done something. Sure - maybe 1 in a million this would happen but given all the other ways to locate someone - it's a "horse bolted" situation.
Unless you're living in a cash only world anonymously in some squat without a mobile phone but, for some reason, with a WiFi router that you've registered with the government - I'm not sure what the issue is!
There's a post up there about being tracked by someone via google somehow. Other than the general principle of privacy (which I'm not dismissing), this is the only objection and I don't get it. If my MAC address is on a Google server somewhere, how does Joe Public get hold of my location? Do they hack into secure servers at Google HQ? If they're that clever than I'm sure they can get into DVLA, council computers etc.
I mean - if I told you my routers MAC address, could you tell me where I am? I'm sure Google have it.
Perhaps I'm missing something - I'm no expert.
Secondly though, if I'm broadcasting a unique identifier that I think someone might have to half the street and the complain that someone might find me - aren't I being a bit of an idiot even without Google? It'd be a bit like having a large sign outside your house with your name on it.
Thirdly - presumably the people opting out will also not have a mobile phone on the grounds that their service providers will know where their phone is.
The wife's not a geek but she needed to play wma files so we bought this app and were impressed at the other features. You can set it so it pauses the music when you remove the headphones. She loves the album art download. The only other app she's bought is some quiz - I don't think that'll be winning the coveted Register award!
I don't think Microsoft has misjudged the mood of its customers. I'll bet that the majority are not bothered about a 24 hour delay. The ones that are bothered are the sort that will be making comments on the internet. My wife doesn't even know what version of Android she's on - never mind that it's a whole year out of date - that's a typical user (she's not thick!).
I'd be interested if anyone knows which app "Anonymous Coward" was talking about as I've never found a free off-line sat nav app for Android. Tried Skobbler and Waze but they are on-line.
Ovi maps is the killer app for me so if there's an alternative, I'd be interested to know. I know Google is moving that way but as pointed out, not good enough for a holiday (not that they cover Greece anyway for voice navigation).
I wouldn't mind too much paying for a decent sat nav app as a one off expense but then paying £30 or whatever each time I go to a different country for the maps? I'll stick with Ovi for now.
Trying to convert myself to android but having a hard time of it -
I've got a Nokia 5800 and I'm trying out the Orange San Francisco (sounds like a bargain on the face of it at £100 with a good res screen). The android OS is great but a rogue app is using data (after doing a factory reset it's OK - I'm wondering if it's Facebook which I can't un-install as it's a "system" app! - this time I didn't sign into it). The build quality is worse. And there's an issue with it forgetting about the SIM card. I had to install the "blade wifi fix" app to sort out a Wifi problem. The sat nav is on-line so no use when I'm on holiday and Google don't cover as many countries as Ovi anyway. it's also very basic in comparison.
Even if I spent a bit more on a better android phone, I'd then be into the no battery life issue. Two guys at work leave theirs plugged in permanently when they're at home or at their desk!
I'm not sure why I want android other than everyone else has one and it looks prettier. Being a geek I like the idea of the linux command line and clever apps but on the other hand, I do need a phone that works as a phone (and occasional sat nav) and doesn't cost more than a laptop.
Think I'd prefer an Archos 70 with Android 2.2. 300 grammes for the 8Gb version or 400g for the 250Mb hard drive version - still lighter than this hefty creature! No 3G but you can tether via blue-tooth to your smart phone which is better for me anyway. Faster processor in the Archos and 3d accelerator too. And cheaper!
This article seems to mix up ANPR used by the police to catch people with no insurance and ANPR used in roadworks to detect speeding.
I think there was one place (I forget where) where they used ANPR or some sort of average speed check on a ring road to enforce speed limits. The council declared it a bit of a disaster as the earnings did not pay for the installation. Everyone slowed down. Don't recall the effect on accidents - just surprised the council were openly more worried about the cash. I don't think this system is very common for permanent installations.
I'm not sure where the author gets the idea that councils who are removing fixed speed cameras for financial reasons are going to suddenly get money for ANPR cameras from somewhere . I think it mentioned lobbying - those same lobbyists who would have failed to keep the fixed cameras presumably.
I use 3 PAYG (though not with an iPhone). I top up £10 every month or two and I never use all the data that comes with the top up - 150Mb - that's quite a lot for my usage. Any big downloads I do at home on Wi-Fi.
3's roaming charge is £1.25/Mb in Europe vs. £2.75 for Orange contract (and presumably PAYG) - I think that's pretty good for roaming.
Vodafone - I tried to buy a cheap PAYG phone from them recently on-line. No sign of the phone so I ring up customer services who are now so busy with iPhones that they had to route my call to another department who couldn't deal with my enquiry! I think I've managed to cancel it by e-mail but who knows!
Maybe they don't have many satellites in the country side? :-)
My friend with his non 3G iPad was surprised to see google maps figure out his location until I reminded him of the WiFi snoop. So handy if planning a route that it knows you're at home. I knew google had a good reason - help out iPad owners. Sounds plausible.
Register
40 posts • joined Wednesday 23rd June 2010 12:40 GMT
Re: Economic harm?
The authors point is that what we all do is illegal and perhaps we should attempt to do something so that we are not breaking the law. Some people are like that. :-)
Re: Good list
I've got GIMP and Irfan view on my PC. By the time GIMP has started up, I can do a quick crop and lossless rotation in Irfan view! So for your ebay changes you might want to try it. Obviously very basic compared to GIMP which I only roll out for the big jobs!
Actually, I recently (1 year ago) started using Picasa - That's great for organising your photos and I like the straightening tool (I must be holding my camera wonky!) and the "I'm feeling lucky" adjuster that just sorts out the colour balance etc. nicely.
I guess they only had 10 slots to fill though!
Re: Thanks for the Flickr link Kristian
I'm not sure but I believe the resolutions available are very limited as Symbian only supports certain resolutions.
Re: These are just for the lazy and technical illiterates.
for "the lazy and technical illiterates" - not exactly a niche market then! What percentage of the population can make their own NAS?
I was lucky - I got a 1TB Buffalo LinkStation Duo 1TB (refurbished) for £73 delivered almost a year ago - pretty close the the cost of 1TB of USB external drive. Fine for storing my videos on (no need for RAID for my usage). They're £90 from ebuyer now.
I think they have their place but I agree that at these prices - not so sure.
Re: same here
True - it's like the author thinks he's being picked on because he has a mac. Maybe someone who's a member of a racial minority who can't access the drive will say Google are racist! :-)
I've been waiting for my e-mail to let me know it's available. I tried using it on my Android phone first and (as if it matters) am now using a PC.
Re: Re Standby
I've got a feeling that if we could resist fiddling with our phones, they would last a long time! My wife isn't using her ZTE Blade at the moment. It's on 3g and syncing mail reading the odd text message. It was down to about 10% after 6.5 days!
I think the weedy CPU helps.
Battery life - vote with your cash.
I can just about cope with the idea of no SD card - I never fill up my 8GB one and USB on the go would provide extra storage if I was on a long trip but I like having a spare battery that I can swap in. I keep a spare in my motorbike jacket so if I get stuck somewhere I know I have a good battery. I don't think the reviewer mentioned this downside.
I read the comments about why aren't manufacturers making the battery last longer or not providing SD card slots. I guess we have to vote with our feet. Quite tempted by the Motorola Razr with its amazing battery life and I think that has an SD card slot - but you can't replace the battery! (something that killed off my Archos 5). I chose a Motorola Defy because it has better than average battery life (still only about 2 days though) and was fairly cheap. The Motorola's seem good on battery life generally.
It will be interesting to see what the Galaxy SIII is like.
Proximity sensor
How do they work at night? Shouldn't my phone be hiding the phone dialler straight away as there's no light? Not that I've experimented - maybe it does!
Re: @Stuart Haliday - Well said!
True - everyone to their own but I wonder how many people are kidding themselves? When I first started ripping I wondered what quality to use. So I ripped a song at 3 different kbps (all at 128 or above using LAME) then burnt each one twice in a random order back to audio CD. I also did that with the original wav file so I had 8 songs on there, 2 original quality and 6 at varying qualities. I could not tell the difference on my Hi-Fi and neither could my younger friend (about 30 at the time I think).
A guy at work had much better hearing than us - or was better at spotting common mp3 artifacts and almost picked out each one correctly but still rated one of the originals as being from mp3.
So yes - everyone to their own and some people certainly have better ears but I think its worth doing a blind test on yourself with the best equipment available and then picking a quality maybe one higher than you think you can hear. It's easy to kid yourself that you can hear a difference when you know one should be better - just human nature.
Thinking about storage space on the mobile!
Price
Sounded quite interesting but the hardware needs to be about £20 for me personally. £50 pushes it into proper money!
Re: That's not Herbie
Was there anyone in it at the time?
More than you think! If there's 850,000 activations per day (that's just Android) then there may be one or two without password - mine included!
Re: Plug-in
Trying to figure out if this is an ironic joke or not considering you can't change the battery easily on Apple stuff!
Re: Market share slump
By that reasoning, it already should have happened when iPad 1 was reduced on iPad 2 launch?
Sprinkler & android 2.3
I can't install Sprinkler as the market says it's not compatible with my phone. The text says it works on 2.3 or later. I have CM 7.1 which is based on Android 2.3.something so I should be OK. Am I wrong?
Spin.
Well that's how they told the story. They're not exactly known for embracing electric cars so it's a bit odd that they started out so positive - unless they were trying to make a good story? And that's what Top Gear's about - a good story and people should be happy with that. Blame the stupid investors for taking Top Gear's information as factual! :-)
Dead or delayed?
"...this[PO] is premature." .... "...Peak Oil is dead:"
Which is it? Through the rest of the article it's dead but near the start it's just "premature". Of course, it will happen one day. The fact that we might replace it with something that isn't too disruptive to our society a bit later than anticipated is neither her nor there.
Still - interesting information but a bit hyped up.
Re: Perhaps sub £250
I got a cheapo Smasung laser printer about 7 years ago to get the wife through university. It cost £59 including VAT and delivery. Handy with only one wage coming in. I saved money by refilling the cartridge and it saw a *lot* of work - she likes printing! It's still in use though it has an easier life now.
So not useless at all. Duplex would have been nice but you can get that under £100 now.
Don't give them another idea!
They'll be suing them for their innovative - "Taking the mick out of the competitors in an advert." concept. We call it an iAdvert and we invited it. Thanks.
All I know is what it says on a recent blog posting where it doesn't sound very much released - http://www.cyanogenmod.com/blog/progress-on-cm9
You could even pop along and visit - that'll help their fund raising a little and could be fun. I've been once and enjoyed seeing the old 80's home computers (sorry - a bit low brow!).
Other stuff.
Interesting post about anti virus! I've got AVG on my android phone for the other stuff - the stuff you use if the phone is lost or stolen.
No sd card.
Similar to the posting about the complaint of requiring software for the Nokia but no mention of that lack on the iPhone. The iPhone has no replaceable sd card (OK - you can get bigger internal memory but then increase the price) and neither does the Nokia but it's only mentioned on the Nokia page.
Maybe you should have complained at the lack of an easily replaceable battery for those festival weekends to complete the set! :-)
Is it just because we can assume that everyone knows about the iPhones shortcomings? (i.e. iTunes software, fixed battery and no SD card)
Show some imagination.
Poor old Nokia. They can't compete with imaginative innovations from Apple such as welding the battery, memory and SIM into the phone so you can't take them out.
Another great invention -
They appear to have pioneered the 3 wheel motorbike. Some people might have gone for a trike in that situation.
Didn't work for me
My MAC address was not found - not sure why as I have Android Google maps app and have had the router for about a year.
MAC to location website
I tried finding the website mentioned and I'm surprised The Register rejected the link. Here's an article from the register about it -
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/05/geo_location_stealing_hack/
Some of the comments say it doesn't work - some say it does I'll have to dig out my MAC address when I get home and give it a try.
So I'll have to concede the situation with a mad, but knowledgeable, ex partner figuring out how to track you could be in issue (still very rare I would have thought) but still can't see the concern over a dodgy government suddenly managing to locate someone for reasons mentioned earlier.
Really - I'm off the grid but now Google put me back on?
"If you happened to be a dissident in a country with no democracy and a poor record on human rights and justice, you might be quite disconcerted that databases of Google, Skyhook, etc. could be used to determine your location"
So I've got a house, broadband connection, bank, phone, pay bills, have a car etc. etc. but the only way the government can find me is because I foolishly wrote to them to let them know my MAC address and they asked Google where it was?
If I was in that situation I certainly wouldn't have a WiFi router broadcasting my location (assuming someone has my MAC address).
Someone said that there was/might have been a website that might have done something. Sure - maybe 1 in a million this would happen but given all the other ways to locate someone - it's a "horse bolted" situation.
Unless you're living in a cash only world anonymously in some squat without a mobile phone but, for some reason, with a WiFi router that you've registered with the government - I'm not sure what the issue is!
How does this give away my location?
There's a post up there about being tracked by someone via google somehow. Other than the general principle of privacy (which I'm not dismissing), this is the only objection and I don't get it. If my MAC address is on a Google server somewhere, how does Joe Public get hold of my location? Do they hack into secure servers at Google HQ? If they're that clever than I'm sure they can get into DVLA, council computers etc.
I mean - if I told you my routers MAC address, could you tell me where I am? I'm sure Google have it.
Perhaps I'm missing something - I'm no expert.
Secondly though, if I'm broadcasting a unique identifier that I think someone might have to half the street and the complain that someone might find me - aren't I being a bit of an idiot even without Google? It'd be a bit like having a large sign outside your house with your name on it.
Thirdly - presumably the people opting out will also not have a mobile phone on the grounds that their service providers will know where their phone is.
Only decent app my wife has bought!
The wife's not a geek but she needed to play wma files so we bought this app and were impressed at the other features. You can set it so it pauses the music when you remove the headphones. She loves the album art download. The only other app she's bought is some quiz - I don't think that'll be winning the coveted Register award!
Vocal minority
I don't think Microsoft has misjudged the mood of its customers. I'll bet that the majority are not bothered about a 24 hour delay. The ones that are bothered are the sort that will be making comments on the internet. My wife doesn't even know what version of Android she's on - never mind that it's a whole year out of date - that's a typical user (she's not thick!).
far right
It's not what the EDL say they are that's the issue. It's what they are. I think Wikipedia covers it.
Free offline navigation?
I'd be interested if anyone knows which app "Anonymous Coward" was talking about as I've never found a free off-line sat nav app for Android. Tried Skobbler and Waze but they are on-line.
Ovi maps is the killer app for me so if there's an alternative, I'd be interested to know. I know Google is moving that way but as pointed out, not good enough for a holiday (not that they cover Greece anyway for voice navigation).
I wouldn't mind too much paying for a decent sat nav app as a one off expense but then paying £30 or whatever each time I go to a different country for the maps? I'll stick with Ovi for now.
Trying to convert myself to android but having a hard time of it -
I've got a Nokia 5800 and I'm trying out the Orange San Francisco (sounds like a bargain on the face of it at £100 with a good res screen). The android OS is great but a rogue app is using data (after doing a factory reset it's OK - I'm wondering if it's Facebook which I can't un-install as it's a "system" app! - this time I didn't sign into it). The build quality is worse. And there's an issue with it forgetting about the SIM card. I had to install the "blade wifi fix" app to sort out a Wifi problem. The sat nav is on-line so no use when I'm on holiday and Google don't cover as many countries as Ovi anyway. it's also very basic in comparison.
Even if I spent a bit more on a better android phone, I'd then be into the no battery life issue. Two guys at work leave theirs plugged in permanently when they're at home or at their desk!
I'm not sure why I want android other than everyone else has one and it looks prettier. Being a geek I like the idea of the linux command line and clever apps but on the other hand, I do need a phone that works as a phone (and occasional sat nav) and doesn't cost more than a laptop.
Prefer the Archos 70
Think I'd prefer an Archos 70 with Android 2.2. 300 grammes for the 8Gb version or 400g for the 250Mb hard drive version - still lighter than this hefty creature! No 3G but you can tether via blue-tooth to your smart phone which is better for me anyway. Faster processor in the Archos and 3d accelerator too. And cheaper!
Bikes more visible than cars logic
Odd - most stuff you hear is about how hard it is to spot motorbikes compared to cars! :-)
If these guys want to help the community perhaps they could check out www.serv.org.uk too.
iPlayer
The web browser might not do flash for the BBC iPlayer but there's an iPlayer app that works fine on S60 phones. It's in the Ovi store.
Mixing up ANPR & where does the cash come from?
This article seems to mix up ANPR used by the police to catch people with no insurance and ANPR used in roadworks to detect speeding.
I think there was one place (I forget where) where they used ANPR or some sort of average speed check on a ring road to enforce speed limits. The council declared it a bit of a disaster as the earnings did not pay for the installation. Everyone slowed down. Don't recall the effect on accidents - just surprised the council were openly more worried about the cash. I don't think this system is very common for permanent installations.
I'm not sure where the author gets the idea that councils who are removing fixed speed cameras for financial reasons are going to suddenly get money for ANPR cameras from somewhere . I think it mentioned lobbying - those same lobbyists who would have failed to keep the fixed cameras presumably.
3 & vodafone
I use 3 PAYG (though not with an iPhone). I top up £10 every month or two and I never use all the data that comes with the top up - 150Mb - that's quite a lot for my usage. Any big downloads I do at home on Wi-Fi.
3's roaming charge is £1.25/Mb in Europe vs. £2.75 for Orange contract (and presumably PAYG) - I think that's pretty good for roaming.
Vodafone - I tried to buy a cheap PAYG phone from them recently on-line. No sign of the phone so I ring up customer services who are now so busy with iPhones that they had to route my call to another department who couldn't deal with my enquiry! I think I've managed to cancel it by e-mail but who knows!
iPad
Maybe they don't have many satellites in the country side? :-)
My friend with his non 3G iPad was surprised to see google maps figure out his location until I reminded him of the WiFi snoop. So handy if planning a route that it knows you're at home. I knew google had a good reason - help out iPad owners. Sounds plausible.